let me hold your hand (and show you that everything's alright)
by Lady StarFlower
Summary: "We should dedicate our efforts to researching the correlation of touch and bad luck and how it might connect to your Crest." Linhardt remarks one day as he lounges by her feet. "I am certain that we could make some fascinating discoveries." Linhardt/Marianne, post canon. Takes place after their A-support.


Marianne is certain that whatever they have going right now, it would surely be short-lived.

Linhardt has become a familiar presence in her life, as familiar as the birds that sing to her in the morning. He has insisted that his close proximity is necessary to facilitate his research in regarding her Crest as smoothly as possible.

_It will bode nothing but trouble,_ she thinks. And it scares her, thinking of Linhardt ravaged by some terrible misfortune...all because of her…

"We should dedicate our efforts to researching the correlation of touch and bad luck and how it might connect to your Crest." Linhardt remarks one day as he lounges by her feet under a spreading elm in the courtyard, breaking the dark train of her thoughts. "I am certain that nothing will happen, but it's worth giving a shot."

"Please, Linhardt." She's trying, really, she is. But the old, sticky fear that has gripped her heart for years needs more than some determined sentiments to be free. "I don't want to hurt you."

He sighs, the sound tinged with exasperation, and rolls over on the grass, propping himself up to stare at her. "Haven't we discussed this at length already?"

Linhardt's sharp gaze gentles when he sees how tightly Marianne has wound her arms about herself, shivering even though there's dappling sunlight all around them. Her knees are drawn up to her chest, and her skirts tremble with her.

She starts when she feels a cautious hand touch her own, gently untangling her limbs until she unravels to look up at him. His green eyes take her up and down for a moment, as if waiting for a response.

"…What?" Marianne eventually says, her lips quivering. Goddess, there must be something wrong if he has to look at her thus. She knew that the Crest of hers brings bad luck after all….

"Oh, forgive me." Linhardt blinks and leans back. "I was just lost in your eyes for a moment. They're a very beautiful color."

"…My eyes are brown." Embarrassment bleeds from her whispered protest. Is he…mocking her?

"Which is a very beautiful color." Linhardt nods, as if this should be a fact she should write down as a note. He pauses. "Do you know, Marianne, that you are a very beautiful person?"

Marianne flushes very red. He _must_ be mocking her now. She would bury her face in her hands but Linhardt is still holding on firmly to one of them, his fingers threading through her own with an unexpected shyness.

"It's not just your looks." Linhardt continues, his voice still quiet and thoughtful. "You have a beauty that's on the inside as well. You are kind, gracious, and so incredibly talented. You have a noble's dignity, and yet an empathetic heart. I think you're…"

He trails off when he realizes that Marianne is staring at him, her lips parted, in shock and some deeper concealed emotion that she herself could not name.

Linhardt blushes, as if he himself has just realized what he'd just said. Clearing his throat, he looks her in the eye and squeezes her hand once. "Ahem. I mean to say…I think you're wonderful."

Marianne makes a soft choked noise. Tears are blurring her vision, but they're tears that fall down her face as she laughs.

"I gather that you're happy?" Linhardt smiles back, reaching up to carefully wipe away her tears. "This is good to hear. My hypothesis is correct."

"What hypothesis?" Marianne sniffles as he matter-of-factly pulls out a handkerchief for her.

"You are happy, and nothing bad has happened during the duration that we held hands." Linhardt gestures at their still-entwined fingers as she blows her nose gracelessly. "I do not believe that your Crest is correlated to any sort of physical manifestation of misfortune. This proves it!"

Marianne barely dares to breathe. "Linhardt…"

He smiles at her. It's small and hesitant, as if he's waiting for her smile to accompany his before it could blossom fully.

His heart is one she wishes to hold tight in her chest.

And so when her own, delighted smile blooms across her face, he brings her hand to his lips and presses a fervent kiss to her knuckles. It sends shivers through her, but not the cold and dark ones that passed through her before.

These are ones that invoke delight, of warmth…and of a delicious longing that sinks into every pore of her being and begs for more.

Linhardt's eyes, when he raises them, mirror the intensity she feels.

"I'm curious." He speaks, his voice still light and curious, but now tempered with a teasing air, "Would my theory still hold up under a more rigorous testing environment?"

"I don't know." Marianne says rather dazedly. "We might have to research that further."

"I'll take you up on that offer." Linhardt scoots closer to her, letting go of her hand to lean forward and press a kiss to her temples. Another to her cheek. Another to her neck, shifting closer all the while. She melts under his ministrations.

"Fascinating." He murmurs against her skin. "I've never felt happier. And you?"

Marianne closes her eyes and searches for that inner darkness, that inky fear that has always slowed her reactions whenever anything amorous comes up between them. She dreads that it's still there….

But instead, there's naught but a burning contentment, a realization that she isn't a cursed being as she had originally thought. It's a marvelous, buoyant feeling, and it spurs her to laugh delightedly and kiss him back.

"No." She replies breathlessly when she pulls away, the word ringing with joy as his eyes lit up in response. "I've never felt happier either!"


End file.
